ACTivate! Workshops
ROiL's ACTivate! workshops develop skills, build community, and empower young people to create change.
Skill-building.
In after-school
workshop sessions, ROiL facilitators lead a series of group-building activities, theater
games and improvisational exercises to help students explore relevant individual and
collective themes. We then work with students to teach three core groups of performance
skills: the physical and vocal tools of acting, the process of considering audience and
crafting a strong story, and the facilitation skills necessary to engage an audience in
post-performance dialogue. Group participants apply these new skills as they collaborate
to find a shape for their evolving vision. The final performance piece is an original work,
and students then perform it for audiences of their choice.
The prize is in the process.
In addition to learning
new skills, students experience growth and learning in each step of the group process.
This work challenges each member of the group to take personal risks, actively support
other group members, and work together as part of a team. Individual conflicts and
agendas must be reconciled with group goals for the entire group to be successful.
Communication, negotiation and conflict resolution strategies become important
components of the group’s journey together.
Becoming an agent of change.
In our society,
youth are often marginalized and excluded from important community decision-making
processes. ROiL’s work motivates participants to explore the role of the individual in
relationship to community, and empowers young people to become directly involved in
decisions that affect them. We build a foundation based on specific performance skills,
and provide a context for students to apply those skills in order to be heard in their
community. By working with dialogue and the techniques of nonviolent communication,
we also help teach students how to listen when others offer differing viewpoints. In
sharing their work younger children, peers, parents and other community members,
workshop participants initiate a dialogue that may continue long after the performance
has come to an end.
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"I was proud that the students decided to bring the show to their
school and to challenge their peers and their teachers to heed the
play's message of acceptance and inclusion.It took courage to present
a piece about hard to talk about subjects to your friends and teachers
.We hope that there will be many future opportunities for students to
engage in performances to wrestle with big questions and for audiences
to have access to these performances to drive critical dialogue.”
-Ken Kunin, Deering High School principal
"I believe that the entire experience, including the challenges, was valuable,
particularly given the group of students who were involved- It taught
them about commitment, responsibility, working together on a project
that is on-going, and maturity."
-Sophie Payson Rand, Advisor, Portland High School Civil Rights Team
Past Projects and Performances
2007
(Untitled), January 2007
Performed at: Istrouma High School, Baton Rouge, LA (with Neighborhood Initiatives Program of BRAF)
Something to Say, February-May 2007
Performed at: Portland High School, Portland, ME (with the PHS Civil Rights Team, supported by Bread for the Journey)
2006
Don't Judge a Book..., February 2006
Performed at: Riverton Park Housing, Portland and Deering High Schools in Maine (with PROP
under contract with Add Verb Productions)
In the Mix, April 2006
Performed at: Wadill Recreation Park Baton Rouge, LA for Big Buddy Camp
Escape Velocity, April 2006
Performed at: Neal St. Performance Space, Portland, ME (with the support of Maine Council of Churches and
under contract with Add Verb Productions)
Work In Progress..., July 2006
Performed at: St. Pius X Church, Baton Rouge, LA for Big Buddy Camp
Survivors, June 2006
Performed at: Riverton Park Housing, O'Natural's, A Company of Girls, Portland, ME (with PROP
under contract with Add Verb Productions)
Allies
ROiL facilitates youth workshops in ongoing collaboration
with the youth
leadership program Peer Leader of PROP (People's Regional Opportunity Program)
at Riverton Park and Portland's Preble Street Teen Center under contract with Add Verb Productions. In Baton Rouge, LA, ROiL has partnered with youth
mentoring organization, Big Buddy to offer theater workshops for area middle
school students and Istrouma High School to create a drama program.
Press
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